Stephen Arnell

Le Carré on screen: 8 adaptations that rival the novels

  • From Spectator Life
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Image: Rex/Shutterstock)

With the sad news of John le Carré’s (1931-2020) passing this weekend, a retrospective of some of the finest screen adaptations in the writer’s canon.

For many aficionados of the genre, le Carré was the unrivalled king of the spy novel, who maintained a remarkably consistent output – his final novel (the satire Agent Running in the Field) was only published just over a year ago.

We’ll be looking primarily at movie adaptations, but I’ll also briefly take in the storied history of Le Carré on the small screen.

This of course includes the magnificent 1979 adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (more on this later) as well as the two recent BBC1 big budget series, the sumptuous Night Manager (2016) and the rather more demanding Little Drummer Girl (2018).

A Perfect Spy (1987) and A Murder of Quality (1991) are minor works, but still well worth checking out.

Some (unfairly) have accused le Carré of lacking humour; if this ever needs refuting, I refer readers to the scene in Smiley’s People (1982) where Alec Guinness (incongruously dressed in a long leather trench coat) spends an interesting evening chasing leads in a sleazy Hamburg sex club, accompanied by grinding porno-rock music.

Returning to the movies, here’s a smorgasbord of some of the best of le Carré on the silver screen.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) – Amazon Prime


Being both his first novel and feature film, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is regarded by many as the best adaptation of any le Carré novel.

This downbeat defector thriller draws a great performance from Richard Burton as Alec Leamas, an apparently washed-up former spy ripe for recruitment by the East German Stasi.

Martin Ritt directs with an eye to the drab reality of the spy world, famously forcing Burton to tone down his theatrics for the role of the forlorn Leamas.

TSWCIFTC is apparently due to be remade

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